A Tribute to Mary Patricia McCoy.... 1930- 2017

Mary was born to eternal life on Monday October 30, 2017...
She is constantly and sadly missed by her children, her family and many friends
Her Story begins below the images.

The Life of Mary McCoy- from the Eulogy made available at her funeral on Monday November 6, 2017.
Held in the chapel of the Divine Word Missionaries at Marsfield, NSW, Australia. Written by her son, Michael.

My mother was born at the War Memorial Hospital in Waverly, NSW at the height of the Great Depression. Her father, James Neville McCoy and her mother, Mavis Josephine (Nichol) grew up as neighbours in Bishop's Avenue, Randwick and had two other children besides Mary- her older brother Jim and younger sister Margaret who predeceased her in 2007. The family endured the struggles facing many during the 1930's and for a time lived at the Burinjuck Dam which Jim helped to build. Despite the physical hardships of life at this time and into the war years Mary had a happy childhood with many in her extended family sharing their lives together.

Mary's father went to war as a sapper in the Australian Army and spent most of the six years of his wartime service away from home either in the Middle East or Darwin. My grandmother, Mavis, a versatile, practical and determined woman, brought up her children virtually on her own during this time. After living in Yass Mavis took her children back to Sydney and settled in Mosman where Mary spent the next twenty or so years of her life. She attended the Sacred Heart Convent School and had an adventurous late childhood and adolescence with her brother and sister having easy access to the harbour foreshore from Sirius Cove around to the Zoo and beyond. As with many girls of her generation Mary did not dwell on the tragic and hard aspects of life during the war and had a carefree and funloving spirit with dancing being a much loved pastime. It was an easy walk for her down to Mosman Bay wharf with a very pleasant ferry trip across to Circular Quay and on to the Trocadero for an evening's dancing and socialising. And it was during one of these excursions in the late 1940's that she met my father Anton, an engineer on a ship of the Dutch merchant navy. Anton had to wait until last to dance with Mary because she was so popular and so beautiful as a young woman. Something must have clicked between them because they were married at the Blessed Sacrament Church at Clifton Gardens in 1949.

Mary and Anton lived on the corner of Raglan and Musgrave Streets in Mosman and raised their four children, Michael, Kathie, Louise and James, there, until they moved to Gray's Point in 1961. Mary was a very loving mother and her children shared the joys of a childhood lived around the harbour virtually as free spirits despite the fact that she was very protective of them- this reflected the lack of fearfulness that characterised this era in Australia. Mum was always there at home with a good hearty meal after a day spent playing around the place and in the bush or on the beautiful little beach at Sirius Cove. Mum and Dad were both very creative and artistic souls and art and music permeated the life of their family. I have very fond memories of dad working away at his art below the flat and mum practising spanish dancing and the castanets above while we children played grocer shops using monopoly money with the kids next door. Mum made sure the children went to Catholic schools and was blessed to have a husband who was a hard working, diligent and thrifty man who was able to purchase a piece of the Australian dream at Gray's Point in the form of a neat little fibro cottage on a large block just across the road from the bush.
Continue reading.......

WONDER by Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637 – 1674)

How like an angel came I down!
How bright are all things here!
When first among his works I did appear
O how their glory did me crown!
The world resembled his eternity,

In which my soul did walk;
And ev'ry thing that I did see Did with me talk.

The skies in their magnificence,
The lively, lovely air;
Oh how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair!
The stars did entertain my sense,
And all the works of God, so bright and pure,
So rich and great did seem,
As if they ever must endure.

In my esteem
A native health and innocence
Within my bones did grow,
And while my God did all his glories show,
I felt a vigour in my sense
With seas of life, like wine;
I nothing in the world did know
But 'twas divine.

Thomas Traherne was an English poet of the "Metaphysical Revival" and in his lifetime he published only one book, Roman Forgeries (1673). He was a clergyman and did not rise to prominence and his works remained largely undiscovered until the winter of 1896–97 when William T. Brooke of London discovered some anonymous manuscripts in a "barrow of books about to be trashed"....... For a complete essay about Traherne go to- www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-traherne